Articles tagged as Canada

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On May 26 the temple room of ISKCON Vancouver will be transformed into a sacred grove resembling Vrindavana, Lord Krishna's abode, as devotees celebrate the Maha Tulsi Puja Festival, or the "great Tulasi worship festival."

The walk begins each day at 4 or 5 a.m., and Swami spends about nine hours walking 45 kilometres per day. He carries with him a sack holding his meditation beads, and often chants and talks to the Creator along the way.
The personable monk, who joined the Hare Krishna movement in 1973 and changed his name from John Vis, said he runs into a lot of cyclists and marathon runners, along with regular citizens curious about his exploits.
“Walking in the summer, it‘s when people are out and about,” he said.
“It‘s the real natural time to be there, and the really big part of this project is to meet people and get inspired . . . and to inspire.”

I started part two of CanWalk Number Three noticing the pool of blood.This is what the highway is—a place of living and moving travel but it is also a place of standstill, of frozenness and death. I am so impactfully reminded of this on this first day.

Somehow, by God’s grace, I was able to complete a third walk across one of the largest land masses on earth, my home country, Canada. This third trek brings the total distance covered to 20,000 Kilometres, or, 12,427 miles. Figures might be important but more relevant is the number of people I met.

Yoga enthusiasts all over Toronto untangled their arms and legs this April to check out InSpirit, a nine-day yoga festival with a difference billed as “The Eternal Spiritual Experience.” Events held at various venues around the city, including the University of Toronto, were designed to help people discover the ancient teachings of the East and their practical application to everyday life.

TORONTO, ON - After almost 40 years of Ratha-Yatras in North America, a distinct challenge has arisen with respect to how to promote these festivals in new and creative ways.
For many devotees, Ratha-Yatra is equated with radiant colours, resounding vibrance, exciting exhibits and entertainment showcasing the beautiful Vaishnava culture. But from a marketing perspective, argue some devotees, perhaps our messaging has become a bit repetitive.

This is Mark from Saranagati Farm in B.C. Canada. Visakha Devi-dasi and myself are organizing a tour of Europe by bicycle from Sweden to Spain in the fall of 2010. We will visit several Hare Krsna farms and temples along the way. A fee $1,000.00 will cover support vehicle and prasadam. You bring bike, sleeping arangement, helmet, etc.

Calgary's Hindus celebrated the most famous of India's festivals, the Rath Yatra Festival or Festival of Chariots, on Sept. 6. Celebrated for hundreds of years in India, it one of the oldest celebrations in the world. Millions of people arrive every year to Jagannath Puri, in eastern India, to pull the chariot on which the idols of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra are seated.

Members of ISKCON Canada’s Toronto and Brampton communities have purchased a country resort which they hope will be an innovative tool for congregational development, a retirement home for senior devotees, and the first “for profit” Vaishnava retreat in North America.

Organizers for the Festival of India had to dig deeper into festival funds
after several hiccups caused by the ongoing Toronto city workers' strike
pushed them off Centre Island.
"This has hit us hard financially," said the festival's chairperson, Krishna
Sharma yesterday. "Suddenly we had to reorganize a brand new festival in about
two weeks time."

With Ratha Yatra season in full swing and ISKCON devotees all over the world celebrating the ancient Chariot festival in honor of Jagannath, this month will see one of the largest events in North America—Toronto Ratha Yatra.

This year, the 5th Annual Gopinath's Kids Camp will be held on Saturday, August 20th from 8:30am-6:00pm, strictly for kids aged 5-12 years. The purpose of this one-day camp is to provide an opportunity to ignite the spiritual spark in children while doing fun and interactive activities that they enjoy.

Bhaktimarga Swami – dubbed the Walking Monk – is in the Pictou County area this weekend as part of his walk across Canada as a “friend” raiser. Bhaktimarga Swami has been a member of the Hare Krishna since 1973.

Toronto's Hare Krishna community recently celebrated the annual Maha-Mantra Festival. The festival involved a wide assortment of activities and events that proved to be wonderfully spiritually inspiring. This video contains some of the highlights.

It was we back in 1973, when followers of Krishna moved to Regina from Vancouver to set up a temple in the 13-block Retallack. What disturbed the leaders and congregation however, was the sense that the neighbourhood did not want them here. They weren’t prepared for a succession of break-ins - five in just a few years.

Many women in the Hare Krishna community, if not all, undoubtedly have incredible amounts of responsibilities and duties to manage in every day life. Whether it's being a wife, a mother, a university student, an employee or a even head of a company, being able to manage personal lives with spiritual endeavours can be a difficult task to manage.

Thousands of Torontonians take the TTC daily to go to school, work and back home. The TTC Subway carts are full of different ads, but recent ads by an independent group called Be Veg have been catching the attention of Subway goers.

It’s heartwarming to see a group of eight devotees brave sub-zero temperatures to bring Srila Prabhupada’s books into small towns and cities in the Canadian Maritimes, where few have ever heard of Krishna.

Also known as ‘The Walking Monk’, Bhaktimarga is currently in the process of walking across Canada for the fourth time. He’s on a mission to promote the concept of pilgrimage and walking for inner development.

“It’s a great way to clear the cobwebs in my mind,” Bhaktimarg Swami says. “Walking really helps create clarity of thought. When I think about what it does to improve me psychologically, physically and spiritually, I think people should reconsider the idea of walking.”

From Saturday April 20th to Sunday July 28st (14 weeks) Bhakti Raghava Swami will be giving a course entitled “Dharma Sastri” at La Nouvelle Vraja Bhumi located at St-Rémi d’Amherst near Mont-Tremblant (Laurentian Mountains) in the Province of Quebec, Canada.

As the holiday season comes around, ISKCON devotees like to wrap up warm, pack their bags full of books by their Founder Acharya Srila Prabhupada, and head out on the streets to give the most valuable Christmas present of all: spiritual knowledge. One of the most enthusiastic ISKCON communities of recent years in this endeavor has been ISKCON of Toronto, Canada.

Huddled together in sub-zero temperatures with no power during an ice storm this past holiday season, devotees in Toronto, Canada discovered the joy of simplicity and Krishna conscious association. The storm struck in the midst of book distributor Vaisesika Das’s annual “Festival of the Heart,” held from December 19th to 24th at ISKCON Toronto.

A husband and wife devotee couple are trying to live a simple life on Canada’s Prince Edward Island according to ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada’s instructions – with inspiring results. Gaura Nitai Das, originally from Scotland, and Lala Gopala Dasi, a Cree native from the White Bear reservation in Saskatchewan, Canada, were both initiated by Srila Prabhupada at Bhaktivedanta Manor near London in 1976.

Students of the Govardhana Academy in Saranagati, an off-the-grid Krishna conscious village in B.C., Canada, have topped the B.C. Green Games winners’ lists in both the secondary and elementary school categories this year.

Students at ISKCON Saranagati, Canada, have topped the British Columbia Green Games winners’ lists in both the secondary and elementary school categories this year. The Green Games are run by a Vancouver center that promotes science education. To enter, students had to create and submit a photo essay, video project or website that showed an environmental action project their school had undertaken.

Toronto's Hare Krishna Centre (ISKCON Toronto), has always been the hub of a rich, vibrant and enthusiastic community. Whether it be grand festivals, programs at local universities and yoga studios, philosophical discussions, cooking sessions, or singing and dancing on the streets, there are events taking place for everyone's interest.

A small yet growing crew of dedicated devotees have been doing Harinama Sankirtana in downtown Vancouver, Canada, for over 200 days in a row now, chanting the Holy Names of God for two hours every week day after work and for three hours on weekends.

On November 21st, 2015 about 200 people braved the winter conditions to come to an interfaith meeting organized by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam'at Canada. The theme was God: Fact or Fiction? There were four speakers: a Baptist minister, an atheist, an Ahmadiyya Muslim representative, and ISKCON member Krsnadasa Kaviraja dasa.

Bhakta Dustin, a Hare Krishna devotee, was given the honour of singing the National Anthem to open the first holiday caucus dinner of the recently elected Canadian liberal government. Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau along with his wife Mrs. Grégoire-Trudeau, affectionately known as “Sofie”, hosted the gala event of almost three thousand elite guests.

Toronto's Hare Krishna Centre (ISKCON Toronto), has always been the hub of a rich, vibrant and enthusiastic community. Whether it be grand festivals, programs at local universities and yoga studios, philosophical discussions, cooking sessions, or singing and dancing on the streets, there are events taking place for everyone's interest. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has shared a congratulatory message for the Canadian Hare Krishna communities for ISKCON's 50th Anniversary.

Elementary and some secondary school students at the Govardhan Academy in Saranagati, B.C., Canada have produced an inspirational and heartfelt puppet show film of how Srila Prabhupada founded ISKCON for ISKCON’s 50th anniversary. The forty-minute film premiered at Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s disappearance day at the Saranagati temple on December 17th, and was very well received. It is now available to view for free on Youtube, and the children’s stunning dedication, hard work and love for Prabhupada is evident in every frame.

With a sudden boom of new Krishna conscious farm projects in Central Canada, their leaders gathered to discuss how they could collaborate with each other at the first ever Central Canada Farm Conference on December 17th. Canadian GBC Bhaktimarga Swami and farmer Sukhayanti Dasi brought together twenty-six devotees from seven agrarian projects across Southern Ontario and Quebec for the conference, which took place at the King Edward Park Community Centre in Brighton, Ontario.

EnChant is Kirtan Vancouver’s “bread and butter,” a kirtan, short talk, and prasadam at a yoga studio every second Saturday that attracts an impressive fifty to seventy people of all ages each time – some from different yoga paths, but many completely new to Eastern spirituality. Once advertised through Facebook, meetup.com, and physical posters, EnChant is now the most well-known kirtan event in the city, and is spread just by positive word-of-mouth.

Govardhana Academy, located at the Saranagati Farm Community in British Columbia (BC), Canada, recently participated in their third year of the BC Green Games - a province wide competition to promote sustainability in schools. One of the biggest challenges of farming at Saranagati is their short growing season. With a self-heated greenhouse, they intend to grow food year-round. Using money from a previous grant award, the materials were purchased and the students and their community teamed up to bring the design to reality.

Christmas 2017. Toronto, Canada was colder than the North Pole, dropping to -22C for the first time in recorded history. Schools closed. People stayed home from work. Outdoor New Year’s Eve celebrations were canceled. The roads were treacherous. But none of this stopped ISKCON Toronto devotees from venturing out to deliver Srila Prabhupada’s books during the six-week Prabhupada marathon, from November 19th to December 31s

Hundreds of devotees recently gathered at ISKCON Montreal, Canada to celebrate the 50thanniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s Summer in Montreal, when he spent three months from June to August of 1968 in the city.

The Parliament of the World’s Religions, the largest global interfaith gathering, will be held in Toronto from November 1 – 7 in Toronto, Canada. The gathering will welcome close to 10,000 delegates from 80 countries, representing nearly 200 religious, spiritual, and Indigenous traditions.

Nearly 10,000 delegates from 80 countries attended the 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions from November 1stto 7thin Toronto, Canada. They represented nearly 200 religious, spiritual and indigenous traditions, comprising the single largest interfaith gathering in the world.

In a holistic and visionary way, what are the deepest needs and hungersof family, of community, of society, of the world?We know when women’s voices are silenced a door opens for children and women themselves to become abused.